171 



OBITUARY. 



On January 10, 1837, died John Robinson, M.D., at his house in Hall 

 Gate, Doncaster, aged 69. He was born at Cawood Hall, near Spalding, 

 Lincolnshire, acquired his medical education with the celebrated Dr. Harri- 

 son, and obtained his degree at Edinburgh. Subsequently he settled for a 

 short time in Derby, but afterwards removed to Doncaster, where he prac- 

 tised about thirty years, with great credit and extensive usefulness. He 

 acted for many years as physician to the Dispensary, and the poor will long 

 remember his honest, upright manner, and genuine benevolence, with feelings 

 of gratitude. He also gave his gratuitous services to the Yorkshire Deaf 

 and Dumb Institution from its commencement till about a year before his 

 death, when Dr. Scholfield was requested to accept the office. Such was his 

 urbanity that he was respected by all parties and all classes ; and by the un- 

 prejudiced practitioners of his time his name is associated with the pleasing 

 recollection of his having been the first physician who devoted his talents to 

 the relief of diseases of the spine on Dr. Harrison's principles of spinal Pa- 

 thology. When Dr. Robinson was pupil to Dr. Harrison, at Horncastle, in 

 Lincolnshire, and when Dr. H. began his spinal practice in I^ondon with such 

 decided success, he communicated not only the principles, but all the manual 

 and mechanical part of the treatment, to his favourite pupil, our late wor- 

 thy friend; and nothing could be more pleasing than to witness the warm 

 friendship which subsisted between these two gentlemen — the pupil honour- 

 ing the master, and the teacher repaying this regard, through a long life, 

 with marked confidence and esteem, until death claimed the younger man as 

 his victim. We have often admired the magnanimity with which Dr. Robin- 

 son bore the odhim which is attached to any new species of practice ; but he 

 knew and felt that it was one eminently calculated to mitigate, and often to 

 cure, the maladies resulting from curvature of the spine. It was conviction 

 that urged him " through evil report and good report," and he lived to see 

 even the most vehement opponent admit the value of the system and the 

 importance of the practice. There was in all Dr. Robinson's actions the im- 

 press of good principles, and he conscientiously persevered in that which his 

 intellect decided to be correct ; and although he valued the good opinions of 

 his cotemporaries, yet he never compromise^ his consistency or integrity to 

 obtain it. He might not be always right, but he was never intentionally 

 wrong. He was invariably candid and just, never indulging in spleen at 

 disappointment, nor did he make the errors of others a subject of comment. 

 To his cotemporaries he was just, and particularly appreciated any kindness 

 or attention ; but he was likewise much pained when he experienced the con- 

 trary, if unmerited ; and when he finished his earthly career there was but 

 one sentiment manifested, that of great regret at his somewhat unexpected 

 summons to " that bourn from whence no traveller returns." 



January 16, 1837, at his father's house, in Glasgow, in his 30th year, 

 Robert Macnish, M.D., author of Philosophy of Sleep, Anatomy of Drunken- 

 ness, Catechism of Phrenology, Book of Aphorisms, &c., works well known to the 

 majority of our readers. 



January the I7th, at his house, in Newhall-street, Birmingham, aged 36, 

 Mr. George Parsons, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and one of 



